Journal
JOURNAL OF SYNCHROTRON RADIATION
Volume 20, Issue -, Pages 460-473Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1107/S0909049513004585
Keywords
iron(III) hexacyanoferrate(II); archaeometry; pair distribution function; light exposure fading; paint layers
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Funding
- Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique of Belgium [9.456595, 1.5.064.05, FC 78482]
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
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Prussian blue, a hydrated iron(III) hexacyanoferrate(II) complex, is a synthetic pigment discovered in Berlin in 1704. Because of both its highly intense color and its low cost, Prussian blue was widely used as a pigment in paintings until the 1970s. The early preparative methods were rapidly recognized as a contributory factor in the fading of the pigment, a fading already known by the mid-eighteenth century. Herein two typical eighteenth-century empirical recipes have been reproduced and the resulting pigment analyzed to better understand the reasons for this fading. X-ray absorption and Mossbauer spectroscopy indicated that the early syntheses lead to Prussian blue together with variable amounts of an undesirable iron(III) product. Pair distribution functional analysis confirmed the presence of nanocrystalline ferrihydrite, Fe10O14(OH)(2), and also identified the presence of alumina hydrate, Al10O14(OH)(2), with a particle size of similar to 15 angstrom. Paint layers prepared from these pigments subjected to accelerated light exposure showed a tendency to turn green, a tendency that was often reported in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century books. The presence of particles of hydrous iron(III) oxides was also observed in a genuine eighteenth-century Prussian blue sample obtained from a polychrome sculpture.
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